Using Google Effectively

Google Scholar

Harness the power of Google Scholar by:

• syncing to the library’s catalog
• syncing to your bibliography manager of choice
• getting a citation for an article in a specific format
• using advanced search to find citations
• seeing how many times an article has been cited

Google Scholar Settings

1. Click on the menu icon in the upper left-hand corner. From here, access Settings.
2. In Settings, you can sync to your library’s catalog and your bibliography manager.

Sync to Your Library’s Catalog

3. Click on the menu icon, then Settings > Library Links. Enter the name of your institution and your searches will now be linked to your library’s catalog so that you can easily find and request PDFs of full articles.

Sync to Your Bibliography Manager

4. If you are using a bibliography manager like RefWorks or EndNote, you can set up Google Scholar so that you will be able to easily export your citations. If you are using another program instead, you can still export to a RefMan file, a format universally readable by most bibliography managers. Go to Settings and see the drop down options under Bibliography manager. Set it to the bibliography manager that you are using.

Get a Formatted Citation

If you need to quickly cite something but aren’t sure of the correct format, Google Scholar quickly formats any citation into MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, or Vancouver. Click on “more” or the quotation marks under the article and then “Cite.”

You can copy and paste the option of your choice.

See Articles that Cite an Article

If you find an article that is relevant, you can view other articles that cited it. You may find additional relevant research this way. This is listed under the article in the search results as “cited by n.”

Use Advanced Search to Find Citations

If you are having trouble finding a citation but have some information about it, use the “Advanced” feature to input everything you know. This feature is under the hamburger in the upper left-hand corner.

Google

Symbols

• Use the at @ symbol to find social tags - example: @carrieprice78
• Use the hashtag # symbol to find popular hashtags - example: #FOAMed
• Use the dollar $ symbol to look for prices associated with your entry - example: harrisons internal medicine $50
• Use quotes " " around a phrase to search on an exact phrase - example: “total knee replacement”
• Use the asterisk * symbol within quotes to look for an unknown or a wildcard - example: “total * replacement”
• Use two periods .. to search within a range - example: baltimore population 2010..2016

Operators

• allintext: all words typed after this operator will be searched for in the website or document - example: allintext:health disparities city
• allintitle: all words typed after this operator will be searched for in the title of the website or document - example: allintitle:health disparities city
• cache: view the way a website looked the last time Google archived it - example: cache:www.hopkinsmedicine.org
• filetype: look for a specific file type - example: critical appraisal filetype:ppt
• info: using this operator will display information about a particular site - example: info:www.hopkinsmedicine.org
• OR: use this operator in all caps to find either of the words or phrases - example: (community OR neighborhood) health resources
• related: use this operator to find sites that are similar to a site you already know - example: related:www.hopkinsmedicine.org
• site: use this operator to find a word or phrase within a specific type of domain - example: community health resources site:gov

Quick Answers

• Type weather in front of a place to find out the weather in a specific area - example: weather baltimore
• Type define in front of a word to return the definition - example: define eosinophil
• Type an equation in the search box to find the answer - example: 302*45
• Find out unit conversions by typing in the search box - example: 45 kilograms in pounds